Kennedy Blames Accident on Sleep Medicine

AP ^ | 5/4/06 | ANDREW MIGA

[Jean S]

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness.

Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'

Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.

Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes in Congress and took "prescribed" amounts of Phenergan and Ambien, another prescribed drug that he occasionally takes to fall asleep.

"Some time around 2:45 a.m., I drove the few blocks to the Capitol Complex believing I needed to vote," his second statement said. "Apparently, I was disoriented from the medication."

Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed his Ford Mustand into a barrier on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning, said Louis P. Cannon, president of the Washington chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Cannon, who was not there, said the officers involved in the accident were instructed by an official "above the rank of patrolman" to take Kennedy home.

No sobriety tests were conducted at the scene.

A letter written by a Capitol Police officer to Acting Chief Christopher McGaffin said Kennedy appeared to be staggering when he left the vehicle after the crash about 3 a.m. The letter was first reported by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

Kennedy said he was late for a vote, officer Greg Baird said in the letter to McGaffin. Baird is acting chairman of the Capitol Hill chapter of the FOP police union. The last vote of the night had occurred almost six hours earlier.

Kennedy said he was driven home by Capitol police.

"At no time did I ask for any special consideration," he said. "I simply complied with what the officers asked me to do."

Kennedy, the son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., and his staff declined to discuss any further details of the accident. The congressman took part in House votes Thursday.

Capitol Police did not immediately return phone calls for comment. They issued a one-line statement saying they were investigating a traffic violation that occurred early in the morning at that location.

Baird wrote McGaffin that two sergeants who responded to the accident conferred with the watch commander and were ordered to leave the scene.

He said that after the officers left, Capitol Police officials gave Kennedy a ride home.

Kennedy spent time at a drug rehabilitation clinic before he went to Providence College. He has been open about mental health issues, including being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

[maggief]

Culture of Consumption.

[Libertina]

At 2:45 in the morning he should have been at home in bed. After all, why take a sleeping medicine if you're going out driving? Good grief, he needs help.

[fatima]

Hummm,he is bipolar.

[USNBandit]

You can say that again.......

[the Real fifi]

He had a similar crash on Aoril 15..And he kept driving? And--What was he doing in that part of town at about 3 a.m. ?

[sweetiepiezer]

ROFL, thought that was too funny.

You would believe it if he was in his pj's.

Thanks for the good laugh.

[Mr. Mojo]

It was at LAX. Kennedy was rushing to catch a plane and the security guard tried to stop him from putting an oversized bag through an X-ray machine. He then shoved her.

I don't remember the Gephardt/cash incident.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Sleep medication usually makes you sleep, not jump in your gas guzzling Mustang and head to Capitol Hill for a vote in the middle of the night. He was either drunk or needs to be under 24 hour psychiatric observation.

[Cobra64]

"Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed his Ford Mustand..."

AP does a teriffic job of proof reading, eh?

[GOP_Raider]

It brings a certain song to mind...........

"Hank why do you drink? Hank why do you roll smoke? Why must you live out the songs that you wrote? If I'm down in a honky tonk some old slicks trying to give my friction I say leave me alone I'm singin' all night long it's a family tradition!!

[highlander_UW]

So what does he blame the special treatment he got upon? Anyone else would have been subjected to a breathalizer and a night in jail.

[Hildy]

LOL

[PackerBoy]

This lie is worse that if he admitted to being drunk. What an idiot, thinking we would buy this crap.

[sgtbono2002]

This one should peg the Bullshit meter. Its an obvious lie.

I would imagine those Sargeants who snuck him off with no test will be Lieutenants soon.

Anyone who would believe this Bullshit story would have to be a complete and total idiot.

Its all over though, the instant they decided not to give a sobriety test it was done with.

I ove it when he said I am on the way to vote and above the law. He wasnt drunk enough to forget that little tidbit perk of all Congress critters.

[Shimmer128]

It took him a while to come up with the right excuse.

[M. Thatcher]

Ran his car aground.

LOLOL

Freepers are just clever. I like this one, too:

This is an obvious case of profiling. The cops saw a Kennedy & assumed he must be drunk.

[Jambe]

Tomorrows Headline:

Kennedy Sues Ford over Mustang Defect!

[Torie]

Just why didn't they give Kennedy a breath test?

[zarf]

Heep good Medicine!

[Cobra64]

I think you mean uncle Ted.